Overview

ViPR System Administrators can review the information that should be considered while configuring specific types of storage systems in
ViPRvirtual arrays and virtual pools, and understand how
ViPR works with the storage system element managers once the volumes or file systems are under
ViPR management.

For details about how you can create virtual arrays, and storage virtual pools see the following articles:

Select which RAID levels the volumes in the virtual pool will consist of.

Unique Auto-tiering Policy Names

VMAX only. When you build auto-tiering policies on a VMAX through Unisphere, you can assign names to the policies you build. These names are visible when you enable
Unique Auto-tiering Policy Names.

If you do not enable this option, the auto-tiering policy names displayed in the Auto-tiering Policy field are those built by ViPR.

Auto-tiering Policy

The Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) policy for this virtual pool. FAST policies are supported on VMAX, VNX for Block, and VNXe.

ViPR chooses physical storage pools to which the selected auto-tiering policy has been applied. If you create a volume in this virtual pool, the auto-tiering policy specified in this field is applied to that volume.

EMC
VNX for Block

Review the following configuration consideration before adding
VNX for Block storage to the
ViPR virtual pools.

Virtual pool configuration considerations

Fibre Channel networks for
VNX for Block storage systems require an SP-A and SP-B port pair in each network, otherwise virtual pools cannot be created for the
VNX for Block storage system.

Prior to
ViPR version 2.2, if no auto-tiering policy was set on the virtual pool created from
VNX for Block storage,
ViPR creates volumes from the virtual pools with auto-tiering enabled. Starting with
ViPR version 2.2, if no policy is set on the virtual pool created for
VNX for Block storage,
ViPR will create volumes from the virtual pool with the "start high then auto-tier" enabled on the new volumes created in the same virtual pool.

Virtual pool recommendations and requirements

Block storage systems under
ViPR management

Once a volume is under
ViPR management, and has been provisioned or exported to a host through a
ViPR service, you should no longer use the storage system element manager to provision or export the volume to hosts. Using only
ViPR to manage the volume will prevent conflicts between the storage system database and the
ViPR database, as well as avoid concurrent lock operations being sent to the storage system. Some examples of failures that could occur when the element manager and ViPR database are not synchronized are:

If you use the element manager to create a volume, and at the same time another user tries to run the "Create a Volume" service from ViPR on the same storage system, the storage system may be locked by the operation run from the element manager, causing the ViPR “Create a Volume” operation to fail.

After a volume was exported to a host through ViPR, the same masking view, which was used by ViPR during the export, was changed on the storage system through the element manager. When ViPR attempts to use the masking view again, the operation will fails because what ViPR has in the database for the masking view is not the same as the actual masking view reconfigured on the storage system.

You can, however, continue to use the storage system element manager to manage storage pools, add capacity, and troubleshoot
ViPR issues.Back to Top

File storage configuration considerations

Review the following information before you add file storage systems to
ViPRvirtual arrays and virtual pools, and before you use the file systems in a
ViPR service.

Virtual pool for configuration settings for all file storage systems

File systems are only thinly provisioned. You must set the virtual pool to Thin, when adding file storage to the virtual pool.

File storage systems under
ViPR management

Once a filesystem is under
ViPR management, and has been provisioned or exported to a host through a
ViPR service, you should no longer use the storage system element manager to provision or export the filesystem to hosts. Using only
ViPR to manage the volume will prevent conflicts between the storage system database and the
ViPR database, as well as avoid concurrent lock operations being sent to the storage system. You can however continue to use the storage system element manager to manage storage pools, add capacity, and troubleshoot
ViPR issues.

Specific storage system configuration requirements

Before you create virtual arrays and virtual pools for File storage in
ViPR, review the following sections for storage system specific configuration requirements and recommendations:

EMC® Data Domain®

Review the following information before virtualizing the
Data Domain storage in the
ViPR virtual arrays and virtual pools.

Virtual pool configuration requirement and considerations

When creating the file virtual pool for
Data Domain storage, the
Long Term Retention attribute must be enabled.

While configuring the file virtual pools for
Data Domain storage systems it is helpful to know that:

A
Data Domain Mtree is represented as a file system in
ViPR.

Storage pools are not a feature of
Data Domain. However,
ViPR uses storage pools to model storage system capacity. Therefore,
ViPR creates one storage pool for each
Data Domain storage system registered to
ViPR, for example, if three
Data Domain storage systems were registered to
ViPR, there would be three separate
Data Domain storage pools. One storage pool for each registered
Data Domain storage system.